“The
Pirates of Orion”
Air
Date: “September 7, 1974
Mom
Title: “Sick Spock”
Coriocytosis comes on
board, a nuisance cold to the humans, but fatal to those with copper based
blood. Good thing we don’t have any of…oh wait.
Instead of blaming the,
yet again, pathetic medical safety protocols of Starfleet, or his own inability
to stock any drugs that wouldn’t have a high street value, McCoy cracks wise
about Spock’s green blood again.
Business as usual.
The animation limits
jump in the viewer’s face again when the Captain places an emergency call to sick
bay while Bones is standing directly next to his chair. Oh well, at least there’s a bunch of Sulu and
Uhura in this one.
The bat looking, red Orion
ships are quite nifty too.
The Orions call back to
the Babel conference, showing the writers were paying attention. Not much attention, though, since the ship’s
identity was clearly intended to be a mystery in the story, except that the
title spoiled it.
It’s interesting to see
how the Saturday morning censor restrictions modify the standard Trek tools for
problem resolution. The Orions had no shields or weapons, making the most obvious
solution to beam hordes of armed security Redshirts over to take over the
vessel and grab the cure. Since that level of violence (or animation) would not
be allowed, the transporter is instead used to beam a bomb out from inside a
backpack.
That’s some pinpoint
control. Forget exploration, a career of
“space pickpocket” would be much more lucrative.
“Bem”
Air
Date: September 9, 1974
Mom
Title: “Jerky Modular Guy”
Hey, I think Uhura is in
command again. She’s the highest ranking one left, and Lieutenant M’Ress is at
the communications station when we hear the landing party called by Uhura.
There seems to be no
documentation in any science or diplomatic computer to let them know Bem comes
from a race with interchangeable and removable body parts. You’d think that
would be the first thing another species would notice. It may be some plot fell out converting this
script from live action to cartoon that would have explained the omission.
This is the point in
Trek history that established Kirk’s middle name as Tiberius, though due to the
“cartoon cannon conundrum” it wouldn’t be confirmed until it was said on the
big screen, in a Klingon courtroom many years later.
“The
Practical Joker”
Air
Date: September 9, 1974
Mom
Title: “Ship’s Computer Goes Funny in the Head”
The Romulans are
attacking…again.
Another weird energy
cloud shows up and infects the computer. Let’s see, where have we seen an
energy being take over all ships systems while it laughed a lot?
We see the first
Holodeck on an Enterprise in this outing, years before it would be a regular
plot generator on the Next Generation. The fact that it had no speakers or
communication equipment on it may explain over a half century of disuse before
it came back.
Oddly, Bones, Sulu and
Uhura, three department heads, are all in the Holodeck taking a break at the
same time during a crisis situation. Not
so oddly, it’s Lieutenant Uhura who takes charge in there when the snow hits
the fan.
Redjac’s second greatest
prank is Doctor McCoy’s fault. It should
come as no surprise that Bones stocks enough laughing gas to fill the entire
vessel.
Redjac’s greatest prank
is amazing. Not that he thought it up,
or that it worked.
No, the amazing part is
that no one on board seemed the slightest bit surprised or confused that the
Enterprise travels with a giant sized inflatable version of itself in the cargo
bay…
For just such an
occasion!
Even poorly animated,
Kirk’s bluffing skills are outstanding, pulling a Bre’r Rabbit gag on his own
beloved ship and simultaneously fooling the Romulans into infecting their ship.
Maybe that’s why they
disappeared from contact with the Federation for so many years. The Romulans
were dealing with the introduction of an insane, body stealing, serial killer
into their society.
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